The Blast Off Kid

January 1, 2004
K-Gr 2-If he can collect 10,000 "Blast Off Bar" wrappers, Jim will win a trip to space camp, so he begins saving. Soon the whole town is helping out and calling him the "Blast Off Kid." As the wrappers come rolling in, Jim begins grouping them to keep track as he counts. He organizes them by tens, hundreds, and finally thousands as he gets closer to his goal. Charts illustrating place value are included, and related math activities are listed at the back. This entertaining story integrates and explains the math concept well and makes a good teaching tool.-Melinda Piehler, Sawgrass Elementary School, Sunrise, FL

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2003
Reviewed with Jennifer Dussling's " Fair Is Fair!\i0

Gr. 1-2. In two easy readers from the Math Matters series, children solve real-world problems using simple mathematical tools. " Blast Off" features Jim, who is determined to collect 10,000 "Blast Off Bar" wrappers and win a trip to space camp. With a little publicity and a lot of help from his community, thousands of wrappers start rolling in. Only Jim's ingenious system for grouping them enables him to keep track of the mounting total and win the prize. Cheerful ink-and-watercolor artwork illustrates this clearly told tale. In " Fair," Marco tries without success to convince his dad to raise his allowance. When Marco collects data and makes bar graphs, though, he makes his case in a persuasive, inspiring, and ultimately successful way. The last page shows information presented on bar graphs. Similarly, the last page of " Blast Off" features a place-value chart based on Jim's bundles and bags of wrappers. Brilliant colors and lightly stylized drawings energize the illustrations, which include several charts. Good reading and painless reinforcement for the math curriculum. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)